Inhumans: “Havoc in the Hidden Land”

With Inhumans one episode away from its finale, is the show gearing up for an epic conclusion? Ken and Robbie took a look, and here’s what they had to say.

Robbie: We’re almost through this. Just one more episode to go once we review this. Ken, think we can survive just a little longer with this show? Things are actually happening, albeit not necessarily happening well, so there’s actually a few things we can at least talk about.

Ken: Yeah. Let’s start with this: so apparently Maximus was funding Doctor Declan’s research. Okay. How? Like, how was Maximus able to obtain such assets? Has he gone to Earth before? If he did, how did he get there unnoticed? That one plot point introduced a lot of annoyances!

Robbie: It was established pretty early on that he was working with Maximus, but they didn’t give us the details until now. With the amount of plot holes it opens, it’s easy to see why.

But hey, Triton is alive, just like we all knew he would be, because it would be a real waste of a character otherwise. And apparently he and Black Bolt had a secret plan just in case Maximus betrayed them in the exact way and time that he did, which they somehow anticipated. At least Medusa rightfully calls him out on keeping it from everyone, but still…

Speaking of, I won’t harp on Triton too much for gaining the same “designated protagonist” status as everyone else, since we haven’t really had much time to get to know him (though he could have stood to appear in a flashback or two, just to make it feel like he was important to the Inhuman royal family), but he appears as another character we’re supposed to instantly like. And while I’ll give him points for style, why is he the one to beat Maximus?

Ken: I… I don’t know why. But can we talk about the fight scenes Triton gets with his Kukuri knives? Because they were hilarious! Like, it was painfully obvious the knives were fake. There was no sense that he was actually cutting into his opponents what so ever. The knives were practically bouncing off their targets. I have seen more believable cuts in a lot of low budget films before.

On Medusa and Black Bolt, I’ll have to give the show some credit. Medusa learning of this secret and the scenes between the two dealing with that mistrust were genuinely some of the best moments of the series. Low bar, I know, but have to give kudos to Serinda Swan on her portrayal here managing to nail the hurt and anger Medusa has.

Robbie: And on the topic of fight scenes, the cinematography during both Triton and Karnak’s fights were pretty painful. At least we got better lighting, but there were so many cuts in each scene, some not even lasting a second, that the entire fights felt cluttered and just painful to watch.

Speaking of painful to watch, how about Crystal and her poor taste in men?

Ken: You know, when we got those not-bad scenes with Medusa and Black Bolt and then got a scene between Medusa and Crystal, I thought “Oh. Maybe some development. They have an interesting relationship in the comics.” I let myself get fooled because this conversation was about Dave. Fucking Dave. Yeah, I get he’s supposed to be a stand-in for Johnny Storm to a degree, but at least in that case it’s Chris Evans and/or Michael B. Jordan. I get that. And yeah, Crystal’s a young adult so wouldn’t know what “love” is, but it didn’t change how cringe this scene was.

Robbie: And I don’t get the impression she was ever longing to escape from her life in the royal family; she just meets one human guy and suddenly wants to leave everything behind for him.

Oh, and the clincher: she could still see him any time she wants without leaving everyone and everything behind if she wanted to, and explore all of Earth with freaking David, because she has a teleporting dog. This is not a little detail to overlook.

Ken: Robbie, let’s face it, “details” was something that this show never held in high consideration. Speaking of: I’ve come to realize how annoyed I am with Auran. More specifically: how she is nothing like her comic counterpart. She was one of the finer characters that Charles Soule introduced into the mythos and literally the only things to transfer over are her name and that she was head of Attilan’s security. I say this, because her healing power in this is now becoming a plot point to bring Gorgon back!

Continued below

Robbie: And let’s take a look at that plot as well.

Maximus spends no small amount of time and effort trying to crack the Inhuman gene to allow him to properly undergo Terrigenesis after his first time made him human, and intends to graft the proper DNA to his own using the Genetic Council’s science.

Then Karnak takes some of Auran’s blood, injects Gorgon, and adds Terrigen.

… Science?

Ken: My bigger point was, okay, you killed Gorgon, the only black dude on your cast, in a way to generate cheap heat to finally get Black Bolt to finally go after Maximus… only just so you are going to bring him back?

It hasn’t been confirmed yet that this process will revive Gorgon, but let’s face it, this show is not clever. So, if you’re going to bring him back, why did you bother killing him to begin with?!

Robbie: Five bucks says he spends the first part of the next episode in a newly-revived Terrigen rage, lacking control or reason, until Karnak talks him down in a supposedly dramatic moment.

Because they’ve already checked off most every cliche in the book, why miss this one?

But getting back to your point, yes, if you’re going to kill off a character for dramatic effect, at least commit to it. Otherwise the stakes just feel fake.

(“Dear sweet Gorgon, your death will not be in vain!”“I’m not quite dead.”)

Ken: So, I guess we should come to the final point, like we do with all of these: Maximus. Not as much of him to talk about in comparison to other episodes, but Iwan Rheon is doing his best with what he’s being given. The last scene finally giving way to the “Maximus the Mad” that we should have been getting in this series.

Robbie: As always, Maximus is the most interesting character in every way. He played everyone in the parlay (albeit in a pretty lackluster way, but Iwan Rheon worked it as well as anyone could hope), and even if he was easily bested in strength, his backup plan is sufficiently crazy.

Just a pity no other characters can meet him in any of those regards; we might actually have a half-decent show if they did. Oh well, we’re stuck with what we’re given, but we only have to endure one more episode.

Ken: And maybe, just maybe, we’ll get out of this unbroken… I’m sure that’s not foreshadowing or anything…

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When he's not at his day job, Ken Godberson III is a guy that will not apologize for being born Post-Crisis. More of his word stuffs can be found on Twitter or Tumblr. Warning: He'll talk your ear off about why Impulse is the greatest superhero ever.

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